Workflows with Sony PXW Z150 4K and Avid Media Composer

Tue28Jun2016

avid · xavc · to · import · edit · load · l

Outline: We write this article to give you en easy way to edit Sony PXW Z150 XAVC-L
files in Avid Media Composer. Hope it can be useful to you.

Recently Sony has launched their latest XDCAM professional camcorder the PXW-Z150, which is an all-in-one 4K
camera with fixed zoom len. The sensor is 1-inch and coupled to a 12x optical zoom. It records up to 30P 4K in the professional XAVC Long format at a maximum of 100Mbps and Full HD in XAVC Long
4:2:2 10-bit at 50Mbps.

For those not familiar, XAVC L is Sony's professional MXF-wrapped long GOP codec, 10-bit 4:2:2 (including
existing UHD and 4K as of firmware update 2.0). Although It can be a great joy for you to upload or share amazing XAVC L files to your friends or social website after editing with Avid Media
Composer, you may failed due to the codec compatibility issues. Actually, XAVC-L is not so popular and widely used, not only Avid Media Composer, other editing software also have difficulties in
dealing with XAVC-L files. To avoid this issue, use a codec that is optimized video editing, such as Avid’s DNxHD codec. Also , as you try to edit 4K files, you may take a look at the following
notes:

Second: In order to work within a 4K project you must have Avid Media Composer 8.3 or
higher

So if you wanna start a new project of editing Sony PXW Z150 4K XAVC-L files in Avid Media Composer, you can
use a third party software to convert XAVC-L files to a format the fits the Avid Which you try to ingest and downscale the resolution to 1080P. In doing so, this will improve playback
performance, and/or the time it takes to import media.

Here I highly recommend you the powerful but easy to use Pavtube HD Video for Mac, it is the versatile 4K XAVC-L to Avid Media Composer transcoding
software on Mac, the one used here can meet your demands with its simple interface, but rich functions:

Step 1: Run the Sony XAVC-L to Avid Converter and click “Add file” or “Add from folder” button, browse to the XAVC-L footages and load them to the converter for
conversion. You can check the “Merge into one” box to join several XAVC-L files together.

Step 2: Choose a proper output format

You just need to go to Final Cut Pro column by choosing “Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) (*.mov)” as best video format
for editing Sony XAVC-L in Final Cut Pro,final Cut Express, iMovie, Premiere with good video quality.

Note: In Avid Media Composer, There are close to 40 different variations of 4K frame sizes, and frame rates.
If you're looking for something that matches the standard consumer 4K television, use the Ultra HD format at 29.97 frames per second. It's listed as 3840x2160p/29.97.

Step 3: Start converting Sony PXW-FS7 XAVC-L to Avid

When you finish all settings, hit “Convert” button to start XAVC-L Mac conversion. You can follow the
conversion process from the pop-up windows.

After the conversion, it will be easy for you to import Sony PXW-Z150 footage into Avid for editing or do
whatever you want with the converted XAVC-L footages on Mac OS X.